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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28730304">unknown waters</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/breaktrio/pseuds/breaktrio'>breaktrio</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Tales of Blood [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Inazuma Eleven, Inazuma Eleven GO</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Crew as Family, Gen, Inazuma Eleven Fantasy Week, Shapeshifting, Trust Issues, i dont know if i did it well, incarceration, it’s subtle but it’s there, kazan the dragon knows more than they tell, mentions of sickness, pirate!matatagi, prompts outlaws / royalty, squint for engou, squint for your pirate having a crush on a future king, this is more of a character study kinda thing</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 12:20:18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,595</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28730304</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/breaktrio/pseuds/breaktrio</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>(day 3 of inazuma eleven fantasy week / prompts royalty or outlaws)<br/>Hayato thinks at night while everyone is asleep.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Tales of Blood [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2103825</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>unknown waters</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>day 3!<br/>set after the events of bonds of fire, the crew is going back home.<br/>hayato is one of my favourite characters and i hope i portrayed him well. until next time &lt;3</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>AT SEA.</b>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The cold hits his face as the ship keeps its course, the darkness of the night making the sea disappear and the stars shine brightly, dancing around one of the biggest full moon Hayato ever saw in his short life. At sea, everything is different. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He keeps his eyes focused on the North Star, too afraid to lose her and their way home. His right hand is frozen against the spyglass, fingers brushing against the engravings of old folktales about gods and yokais. He never had something so fancy. It’s a gift from the Captain after welcoming him on the crew. He never received a gift, either.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hayato hears wings flapping and he turns in the direction of the sound, the air suddenly warmer against his skin, and he sees them: the enormous red dragon that is escorting them back home with their rider. They are flying silently next to the ship, their hot breath making Hayao’s job easier for another night once again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He never met a dragon before. He supposes they are not that bad if they are like Kazan. Hayato isn’t scared of them, Hayato isn’t really scared of anything, but he can see why some crew members didn’t want Kazan to come with them on their journey back home. Kazan is almost as long and big as the Oumihara, their wings twice its sails and they attack it, before, fireballs and smoke almost destroy the ship. Hayato doesn’t care as he secretly admires the way Kazan flips their wings, never once complaining about being tired of flying. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hayato knows Kazan can speak, King Regent called it </span>
  <em>
    <span>telepathy</span>
  </em>
  <span>, possible thanks to their relationship with their rider, Shuuya, who, on the other hand, doesn’t speak, doesn’t eat and doesn’t do anything else except follow King Regent around the ship, his naked feet bleeding because of wood splinters getting stuck into his skin. Not a sound, just Endou shaking his head and taking his hand to bring him to the ship’s Doctor, after noticing all the tiny little cuts. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>King Regent cares, Hayato knows it and he didn’t ever meet someone as caring, devoted, as King Regent. He doesn’t want the kingdom for himself, never wanted in the first place, and that concept is so strange to Hayato, who would want the kingdom for himself if the King Regent was him. No, the real King Regentis travelling half of the world just to save the Crown Prince—</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hayato hits his forehead with the palm of his hand, hard, the loud smack making Kazan look at him. Briefly. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Don’t think about the Crown Prince, don’t think about the Crown Prince, don’t think about the Crown Prince. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Hayato resumes his duty.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He is the Watcher. It’s his eyes, really, the only reason Hayato is on this ship. His ears, too, but mostly his eyes. Born with the sight of a hawk, he can see things a normal human eyes can’t. King Regent says he should use this talent for good, not for stealing. Hayato wants to eat him whole, sometimes, with all of his kind smiles and rightness. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>On the ship, instead, his eyes are for spotting land or danger, but most of the time he just watches his crew members and learns about them from the safety of his Crow’s nest, </span>
  <em>
    <span>for the future. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>See, Hayato isn't a fixed member of the crew, he is the new kid and they will probably abandon him once the job is done. They don’t need a malnourished young boy with too quick hands. Hayato understands it, but he needs reassurance that the Captain is going to pay him and not only dismiss him or worse, let him be thrown back into the dungeon by the King Regent--he’s all nice smiles and pat on Hayato’s shoulder, but he is still the one that put him in jail the first time. He has two mouths to feed back at home and he doesn’t have the time to plan another evasion. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>This is the reason why he knows everything that happens on the ship, he knows everything about his crew members, trying to find some dirty laundry on them so he can have something to hold above their heads like a guillotine, if something happens. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He knows about Captain is in love with a man from the nobility, and how their relationship can’t work because Captain can’t leave the sea, can’t leave his ship, can’t leave this life of freedom and violence, no matter what. He knows about how Fudou, the Quartermaster, has the ability to influence someone’s mind with his words, but he rarely uses it because </span>
  <em>
    <span>where would be the fun, kid?</span>
  </em>
  <span> but Hayato can feel the regrets behind his words, like something happened because of his little power. He notices how Someoka, the Gunnery Chief, looks at Shuuya when he flies with Kazan, like some memory unlocked into his mind at that sight. He hears Tobitaka cooking, frying, cutting from sunrise to sunset, asking the King Regent about what a dragon eats and ordering the cabin boy, Toramaru, around. Before Hayato, Toramaru was the youngest crew member, even if Toramaru is twenty-seven years old and they still call him cabin boy, but he is next in line to be the Quartermaster when Fudou gets killed by an ex boyfriend he scammed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hayato studies them, but he doesn’t like them. Or it’s what he keeps telling himself. They are not his people, they are not his family, his family is at home, waiting for him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kazan flies in circles, showing off a little bit, putting on a show just for Hayato to make him feel less lonely. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Must be fun,” he says more to himself than to the dragon, “Flying.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It is,” Kazan answers back and Hayato should be used to it, to this sensation of feeling a voice instead of hearing it, but it’s always a shock and a surprise when it happens, “I think you can do it too.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hayato huffs out a laugh, goosebumps all over his skin, “I’m not like you, I don’t have wings.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you sure?” Kazan gets closer, too close maybe, their yellow eyes hooking Hayato on the spot, “Your power… you don’t know how to use it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My eyes?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not just your eyes, young falcon, not just your eyes.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know what you mean!” Hayato jumps up, his back and his thighs screaming in pain from being crunched all night in the same spot on the Crow’s nest. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kazan laughs and flies away, disappearing into the night, and Hayato knows they will be back by morning, not leaving Shuuya alone, even if now their rider sleeps in King Regent’s cabin. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hayato grunts as he sits back, his head hitting the mast as he does it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ouch,” he laments, fingers touching the sore spot, “What a great night.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He looks up, the stars keep shining against the dark and the only thing he can think about it’s the fact that despite everything, all the observing, all the sneaking, all the hearing people’s business, he doesn’t know anything at all. About himself, about his family, about this ship and its crew, about this journey, about the Crown Prince, kind smile and gentle eyes, different from the King Regent, but infuriating as well. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hayato doesn’t want to think about him, but he does all the same, because the reason he is here it’s the Crown Prince. He doesn’t want to save him, he isn’t the King Regent, but Hayato can’t forget the way the Crown Prince’s fingers slipped from the book he was reading in the Royal Library, the way his head hit the floor and the blood, and all the screaming and after being thrown into a cell, the quiet. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s not the same quiet as a night spent on the Oumihara, waves rocking the ship, it was different. It was the quiet of who can’t keep fighting. He wasn’t alone, Oumihara’s crew was arrested and stashed in the dungeon three days before. All the crew members were sleeping, waiting for trial, except for the Captain, an eye always opened. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hayato didn’t want to be friends with him, he explained to the Captain, rambling out words with shock still in his veins, he didn’t want to talk to him, he just wanted information. About himself, about his family and the only place to find them was the Royal Library, Manabe said. He stole some royal thingies along the way and sold them to feed his brothers, but they didn’t really need them. There are a lot of royal thingies in the Palace to replace them. This is how he met the Crown Prince and he spotted Hayato right away, but he didn’t call the guards, no, he helped him in his research and it was weird, but… there was something growing inside of Hayato as the Crown Prince told him about tales of shapeshifters, lost loves and hunting dogs, until there were screams for help and blood and Hayato still dreams about it, until now, about the way he couldn’t stop it, about he didn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>see</span>
  </em>
  <span> it, and Hayto is supposed to see everything better than anyone else. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He is here to pay a debt, he just doesn’t know to whom. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The darkness starts to clear as the sun rises, slowly, tinting the sky of pink and soft oranges and he hears Tobitaka call for Toramaru and Fudou groaning on the deck, ready for another day of sailing back home, to bring the cure for the Crown Prince back. </span>
</p><p> </p>
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